The Assertive Woman in Zora Neale Hurston's Fiction, Folklore, and Drama
Hurston was renowned for her portrayal of assertive women in her fiction, folklore, and drama. This book explores her development as an assertive woman and outspoken writer, emphasizing the impact of the African American oral traditions and vernacular speech patterns of Harlem, Polk County, and her hometown of Eatonville, Florida on the development of her personal and artistic voice. The study traces the development of her assertive women characters, the emphasis upon verbal performance and...
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Hurston was renowned for her portrayal of assertive women in her fiction, folklore, and drama. This book explores her development as an assertive woman and outspoken writer, emphasizing the impact of the African American oral traditions and vernacular speech patterns of Harlem, Polk County, and her hometown of Eatonville, Florida on the development of her personal and artistic voice. The study traces the development of her assertive women characters, the emphasis upon verbal performance and verbal empowerment, the significance of "down home" Southern humor, and the importance of an ideology of assertive individualism in Hurston's writings and analyzes changes in Hurston's personal style.Hurston articulated an assertive spirit and voice that had a profound influence on the development of her professional reputation and on the course of African American literature, folklore, and culture of the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s. This study combines literary criticism and biography in tracing her often controversial career. This wide-ranging book focuses upon links between Hurston's fiction and nonfiction, and includes analysis of her plays, which have often been neglected in studies of her writing.(Ph.D. dissertation, State University of New York-Buffalo, 1989; revised with new introduction)
AcknowledgmentsIntroduction1"Ah got de law in mah mouf': Negotiating Respect in the Hurston Mold32The Other Woman in Hurston's Art: The Literary Foil to the Assertive Woman173The Assertive Woman in Conversation and Combat: Dimensions of the Talking and Fighting Phenomenon314Big Sweet, Polk County's Queen of Talk and Song355Big Sweet and the Talk Experience in the Jook456Big Sweet in Polk County577Laura Lee in "The Conscience of the Court"818Missie May in "The Gilded Six Bits"899Daisy in "Mule Bone" and The Domestic in "Story in Harlem Slang"9710Delia in "Sweat"10511Lucy in Jonah's Gourd Vine11312Janie in Their Eyes Were Watching God127Notes149Selected Bibliography155Index173
